Summary of passage: Jared had Enoch and then he died. Enoch had Methuselah. Enoch walked with God and was taken up to heaven.
Questions:
8 ) Jude says Enoch prophesied. Hebrews says he was commended as one who pleased God. Genesis says Enoch walked with God.
9) No. He was taken up to heaven but did not experience a physical death.
10a) Enoch was just taken up to heaven as those of us who are living in Christ (the faithful) shall be taken up to heaven when the Lord comes.
b) We will all rise and be changed and given a new body. The Lord will come down from heaven and with a loud command and trumpet call the dead in Christ will rise. Then the living in Christ will rise and be with the Lord forever.
c) Personal Question. My answer: Rising again to be with Christ forever. Gives me hope.
Conclusions: I’m REALLY not liking this lesson. I just feel like BSF is spending way too much time on Genesis 5 and an obscure guy named Enoch. Furthermore, we discussed all of this in Acts last year. We read Hebrews, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Thessalonians and discussed Enoch as well. I just don’t see his importance like BSF does.
Question 8 had no specifics. We don’t know why Enoch was commended with God or how he exactly walked with God. We just know he did something to be taken up to heaven by God. I just don’t see how this applies to my life.
For me, I didn’t get anything out of this lesson and am ready to move on to Lesson 7.
Comment on shedding a little light on Enoch. A while back I came across a short sermon about Enoch. In chapter 5 everyone dies physically except Enoch, so he is a bright light in a gloomy, dark chapter! Enoch is mentioned in Gen 5; Heb 11:5-6; and Jude 14. His walk with God (Gen 5:22) probably included an intimate relationship with God, close communion, being a friend of God, pleasing God, and living a life of faithful obedience. He walked with God for 300 years which is longer than America has been a nation! Nothing is mentioned about any backsliding or disobedience, in contrast to many old testament saints(ie Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and David just to mention a few). The preacher said something like this about Enoch: One day late in the evening, God and Enoch were taking their usual daily walk having conversation and laughter and time was flying by. God told Enoch “You are closer to My Home than your home, so why don’t you just come Home with Me.” So Enoch went Home with His Lord and never tasted death! This is a type of rapture passage where God takes the living Home with Him at His Second Coming like AtoZ mentioned in question 10a. Maybe in a gloomy, miserable death chapter, God chose to tell us about one of His faithful servants to encourage us! Remember in the next few chapters, all of the population of earth would be destroyed with only 8 survivors that had faith in God. God destroyed the earth with the flood because of all the wickedness, corruption, promiscuity, and lack of faith that was abounding in the days of Noah. Thus Enoch was a beacon of light in a dark world!
Interesting. Your elaboration makes a lot of sense. There is a reason Enoch is mentioned in the bible and he is not obscure as ATOZ implies. Nothing to God is insignificant even the genealogies. They are all pointing to something great and that is Jesus Christ our redeemer. Thank you for highlighting this.
Again, speculation. We don’t know what God told Enoch, Julia, or how he walked with God. That is one preacher’s guess. In fact, I hear all the time at funerals and eulogies how people today “walk with God.” I would wager Enoch was different but who knows? Only God.
Jane, insignificant does NOT mean the same as obscure. I said he’s obscure like some of the other lists of names, begats and begots in the Bible. Enoch is obscure and we know nothing about him but a few words. He’s only mentioned a handful of times. There is a difference.
Guess you need to consider that not everyone studying Genesis this time around with BSF was also enrolled last year to study Acts. Perhaps that is why the repeat of Enoch, etc.
You might enjoy reading The Book of Enoch. It is long, challenging reading, didn’t make the cut for canonization, but clearly it was around in the time of Jesus and Jude and the author of Hebrews were familiar with it.
I like your blog and find it thoughtful, interesting and helpful. Don’t stop!
I appreciate how BSF ties everything together and constantly refers to other sections of the bible as well as previous lessons. It reinforces and validates what I am learning and helps me solidify things in my mind. I am repeating Genesis this year, and I couldn’t be happier. There are things that I somehow missed the first time. When I pray before I start my lesson, so much more is revealed to me… I am always blessed.
I know there are great lessons to be learned from this passage and Enoch’s life, but I thought BSF did a poor job with the questions in this lesson. I agree with you, I did not like this lesson very much.
One thing I thought was kind of neat…and maybe I’m totally going off subject…But Enoch lived 365 years…and there are 365 days in a year…maybe God is showing us that it is possible to live and walk with HIM daily!!!!!!! What do y’all think? I know that it is all encouraging to me and I love learning more and more about the Bible every time I read through it, because every time I read through through the whole Bible I’m in a different phase of life!
Hi Lindsey,
Liked your analogy of 365 days/year to have a daily walk with our Lord. Our ideal is to have a daily walk with God. It is NOT a sprint, run, or a marathon race BUT a daily walk! It takes a conscious effort on our part along with Holy Spirit power so that we can be led and live with the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. Our enemies (Devil, our old flesh and sinful nature, and the world system) are constantly attacking and distracting us to keep us from daily communion, prayer, intimate relationship with God, and meditate and read our Bibles. I applaud you as you are encouraged on reading God’s Word and finding something to always build as you are in different parts of your life. It’s very difficult , if not impossible, in today’s society to have a daily walk with God without the leading of the Holy Spirit and His fruit of love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23).